Flexibility
The Value of a Diverse Education
By Guest Blogger on January 21st, 2016
This is the ninth post in a series by the Cooney family about their world travels, made possible by the flexible learning offered at FLVS.
Most people who live in the United States believe they are well informed about world events. It isn’t until a person travels that he truly understands how wrong he is.
And by travel, I don’t mean staying at a resort and participating in touristy tours, but going to the local markets, riding the local buses and getting to know the local residents. You can only truly understand and appreciate the culture and people when you’ve transitioned from tourist to traveler.
As a result of social media and cable television, we live in a world of 24/7 news, or so we believe. In reality, very little of the “real world” news seems to filter through the noise of popular media.
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle While Traveling
By Guest Blogger on December 9th, 2015
This is the eighth post in a series by the Cooney family about their world travels, made possible by the flexible learning offered at FLVS.
Whether you are planning a “stay-cation” or a global yearlong adventure around the world similar to ours, staying healthy, happy, and fit while traveling can present a few obstacles.
Maintaining healthy eating habits at home can be difficult and doing the same on the road requires even more due-diligence. Preplanning is the key, and can mean the difference between completely abandoning your healthy lifestyle or keeping you on track.
Incorporate some or all the following tips we’ve used to ensure you have a healthy, happy trip.
Continue reading
Benefits of Competency-Based Learning
By Guest Blogger on December 7th, 2015
One of the common symptoms of leukemia is a significant decrease in functional white blood cells.
Which components of nonspecific and specific immunity will be negatively affected by leukemia? Which components of the immune system will remain unaffected?
Can you answer that? My guess is that many of you reading this post cannot answer it AT THIS TIME. That’s because you haven’t been able to learn all of the necessary information to understand the question and process it to result in an answer. In some cases, that’s what happens to students in a brick-and-mortar classroom based on a traditional 180-day school calendar.
Students try learning the preceding information, but the teacher must move on in the lesson to meet the seat-time based school-year plan before each student can master the content, potentially leaving a student without the skills to answer correctly. Continue reading
Student Gives at Animal Shelter and Gains Much More
By Guest Blogger on November 24th, 2015
This month, we asked students to share ways they give back in their communities using #flvsgiving on social media. This post was written by one of our students who volunteers at her local animal shelter.
Hi, I’m Alexis Lamphere.
I’m a senior at FLVS and I currently volunteer with the Osceola County Animals Services in Saint Cloud.
In addition to volunteering my time, I foster kittens that are underweight or too young to be adopted and don’t have a mother cat to take care of them.
Working at the shelter is honestly a life-changing experience. I’m given the chance to help improve and change many lives every day. It teaches you to be selfless and you start to have an endless love for each animal. You start to care about the animal’s happiness more than your own and he/she becomes more than “just some dog” or “just some cat.” The animal becomes a loved one, a friend, and part of your heart. Continue reading
Travel is the Ultimate Education
By Guest Blogger on November 16th, 2015
This is the seventh post in a series by the Cooney family about their world travels, made possible by the flexible learning offered at FLVS.
Recently, friends of ours withdrew their nine-year old daughter from school to take her with them to Washington, D.C. and Iceland.
They planned to tour the nation’s capital before leaving for Iceland for the family’s first trip abroad. To do so, Jennifer (not her real name), would miss approximately a week of school. Jennifer’s mom contacted the school well in advance and completed the necessary paperwork to request an excused absence. She outlined in detail all that Jennifer would experience and see during the trip.
However, the school principal did not respond and after repeated calls asking for an update, it was time to leave. Continue reading
What Travel Has Meant to My Career
By Guest Blogger on October 12th, 2015
This is the sixth post in a series by the Cooney family about their world travels, made possible by the flexible learning offered at FLVS.
Traveling has been such an amazing opportunity for me in so many ways.
It’s taught me more than I ever could have learned from solely reading books. It’s showed me how to relate with people and find ways to communicate with others, even if we don’t speak the same language. You begin to realize deep down we’re not all that different.
Traveling has been an extremely liberating experience, though it wasn’t always easy. It pushes you and constantly forces you out of your comfort zone. Early on I had to find a way to be able to continue school while traveling. FLVS was such a great way to be able to do that. There were times when I was in the middle of the jungle in Central America, monkeys were swinging above my head and I was still able to take a test online. Continue reading
Never Stop Exploring
By Guest Blogger on September 4th, 2015
This is the fifth post in a series by the Cooney family about their world travels, made possible by the flexible learning offered at FLVS.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
In Margret Mitchell’s novel, “Gone with the Wind,” Gerald O’Hara states that, “Land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.” While I agree that the preservation of natural places is one of the most important goals, Mitchell’s character is only partly right, in that there are other things in life worth the effort as well. There are non-material events and knowledge, which are incommensurable. Continue reading
5 Ways to Stay Safe While Traveling the World
By Guest Blogger on August 5th, 2015
This is the fourth post in a series by the Cooney family about their world travels, made possible by the flexible learning offered at FLVS.
Travel Safety Awareness Month is the perfect time to address one of the questions we were often asked before leaving on an around-the-world trek.
“Aren’t you afraid to travel to other countries with your family?”
As we all know, there is risk in nearly everything we do. Whether taking a shower, driving to work, walking across the street, shopping at the grocery store, going to the movie theater, or skydiving, there is inherent risk in everything we do. If you don’t think so, just count the number of attorney ads on TV, radio, and social media. Even after our trek, the question of safety continues to be asked when I give talks about our adventure.
Making the Journey the Destination
By Guest Blogger on July 14th, 2015
This is the third post in a series by the Cooney family about their world travels, made possible by the flexible learning offered at FLVS.
“There once was a man who became unstuck in the world. He realized that he was not his car, he realized that he was not his job, he was not his phone, his desk or his shoes. Like a boat cut from its anchor, he’d begin to drift. He took the wind for a map, he took the sky for a clock, and he set off with no destination. He was never lost.” – Castles in the Sky
Seeing the world will change your life.
There is simply no way around it. Once you take the first step in your journey to understand a new culture, learn a different language, climb a higher mountain, or sail across a deeper sea, you will never be the same. Continue reading
Meet 3rd Grade Synchronized Swimmer Jennah
By Guest Blogger on June 18th, 2015
We love sharing our student stories with the FLVS community!
This week, we hear from Jennah H., a third grade student at Florida Virtual School Full Time (FLVS FT) who shares her love for both FLVS and synchronized swimming. Jenna started attending FLVS FT during the 2014-15 school year so that she could attend swimming practice more often. She has won every competition she entered this year – all while keeping straight A’s!
If you or your student is interested in sharing your FLVS experience with The Virtual Voice, drop us an email at socialmedia@flvs.net. Continue reading